Episode 001: 4 Reasons Small Churches are Awesome (& Why I Started This Podcast)

Intro 0:02 
Hey, this is Laurie Graham. Welcome to The Small Church Ministry Podcast.

Laurie Graham 0:20
Hey and welcome! This is the very first ever episode of The Small Church Ministry Podcast. And I am so excited. I want to just start by saying thank you for spending your time with me. I know there’s so much to do today, like right now in this very moment, and I don’t take it lightly that you’re hanging out with me.

So whether you’re here for 20 minutes or the whole journey, I’m grateful. 

I created this podcast for volunteers and those who lead in small churches. This is going to be all about sharing practical ideas and strategies that work in small churches, to lift up servant leaders all over the planet. 

Now, this is not a theological podcast. We’re not going to be talking about church growth strategies, church mission statements, or the topics of church polity (whatever that is, right). 

This podcast is really for volunteers and those in the trenches, people who are leading in ministry. For Sunday school teachers, ushers, tech team, communicators, administrators, youth leaders, the people who set up for funerals. Those of you who are running the church, barbecues, VBS, hospitality, worship leaders. And the best ever, accidental leaders, those of you who just found yourself in a place of teaching or leading saying, “What am I doing?” Helpers at events, anything you can think of! This podcast isn’t just for pastors, it’s for all the unseen heroes and the people who keep the church kitchen clean.

Why? Because you are the church!

Right! 

But I’m just going to be sharing how to embrace God’s call on your life and how that fits in your small church. This isn’t just the call for pastors or those who “feel called”. Right? 

But this is the call of every Jesus follower, not just the talented ones, the confident ones, the educated ones. Your small church is part of this.

It will probably feel a little like life coaching mixed with leadership training and maybe some small church strategy because honestly, we cannot do ministry well if we are not being well. That is a huge issue in our modern church culture. The striving to do for God – to work for Him until we’re exhausted, burnt out, or sometimes even crabby. With those who aren’t doing as much as we are or those who should be more committed, or maybe we’re feeling like failures because our church isn’t growing in numbers.

Which by the way is totally not even biblical, but we’ll save that for another podcast. 

So all that to say, welcome to our very first podcast episode. And we’re going to just jump in. 
I wanted to start out with four reasons why small churches are awesome because sometimes today we’re apologizing for the size of our church.

Like if you’ve ever met somebody and they’re like, “Oh, where do you go to church?” A lot of times people say, “Oh, I haven’t heard of that,” “How big is that?” Or you may find yourself qualifying. “Well, I go to the small church. It’s kind of on the corner here.” 

I just want to give you four reasons why small churches are awesome because we shouldn’t be apologizing for anything. We should be holding our heads high and really like just screaming from the mountain top. What is amazing about small churches? 

Number one, God loves small. 

Throughout the Bible, He even made things smaller than they were. He pointed out small. He did it for one. Right? I want you even, just to think of the story of Gideon’s army. I don’t know if you know the story in the Old Testament, but Gideon has this army and systematically God made it smaller and smaller and smaller before He used it.

And He got the glory. 

Remember when God sent flakes of manna from the sky, you know, to feed the exiles and stuff. Did He have to send flakes, these little tiny flakes of food? No, God could have like rained boulders of bread down. Leavened bread, even. Right? But He didn’t, He sent these tiny little flakes of manna.

God loves small. 

Think about the one lost coin, the one lost sheep, the few loaves and fishes. 
God could have made these stories, these analogies about anything he wanted, but He chose one. 

How about the story of small little David up against Goliath? God didn’t have to use David. He could have found a big guy who was comparable to Goliath, but He didn’t.

He took small little David and set him up for the victory.

Now some people I know in small churches don’t like the word small. 

I help run online conferences for small churches. We have this whole ministry with these free online conferences. It’s so cool. I get to meet the most amazing people in small churches, all over the world.

And as I’ve done these conferences and talking with leaders, several have challenged me that I say small churches, because they want to use different words. 

They don’t like the word small. They think small limits us and makes us feel small and do small things. 

You know, I totally get their perspective, and whatever works for you is fine.

I like the word small. I don’t need to say a smaller church or a normal-sized church or an average-sized church. I like small. I think small things are great because bigger is not always better. Sometimes I think about when I’m taking a walk outside and there are these beautiful things around us.

Beautiful huge tree or a beautiful, huge sunrise. But then sometimes when I’m walking around in nature, I find these little small things and it’s like, “Wow, God, You did that!” Look at that. It’s almost microscopic, right? Like you can barely even see this glint that’s coming from the desert. You know, when you’re walking along the rocky ground, or the tiniest little flower, I’m so fascinated by that.

I love small. 

I don’t know the last time you were around a tiny little baby, but I don’t think most of us are thinking, “Oh, this baby is so cool because it’s going to be big someday.” No! We love small. 

There’s something about small that is so beautiful and God loves small. So this is just one reason why small churches are awesome because God loves small. 

The second thing I want to mention is relationships happen in small numbers.

Just naturally, this is a human thing. Relationships happen in small numbers and lives are changed by relationships. If you are in a small church, you know what this is like. You cannot be anonymous. People see you, even when you don’t want to be seen. 

You know, one of the biggest desires of people is to be seen and loved. 

And in small churches, we cannot help but see people, you cannot blend into the masses because there aren’t masses to blend into. 

Now I get that being seen and loved are two different things, right? And maybe some of our churches struggle with loving as much as we struggle with seeing, but I can’t even talk about small churches without talking about the relational, amazing relational greatness, that happens in small numbers. 

Think about big churches that are constantly trying to break into smaller numbers. So relationships can form, right? Trying to break into small groups of six or eight or 10 that naturally happens in small churches. 

So relationships happen in small numbers.

The third reason I just love, love, love about small churches is that small churches are intergenerational playgrounds. 

You can’t help, but mix the old and the young! The middle age with those who are a generation younger or older. This whole idea of segmenting groups of people into demographics wasn’t meant like an ideal, it was a necessity. 

I don’t even know when we started separating, you know, the one-room, schoolhouse from just second graders being by themselves or toddlers having their own room. Right? Like when did this happen in history? I’m not sure – I’m not a historian, but I do know it’s not ideal for living and loving and learning about God, about each other, or even just doing life in society.

I want you to think about doing life. With just one age group. 

Can you imagine being born into just a family of toddlers? Like never having a parent, right? And growing up with that same age group all the way through. So now you’re all three-year-olds then you’re all ten-year-olds then you’re all 30-year-olds together.

There’s no one to teach you. There’s no one to teach. 

That is not how God set up doing life. We’re supposed to be surrounded by older and younger.

Think about it as people age and they get to a place where they maybe they can’t take care of themselves as much, or their muscles are weaker or they are failing.

What do we do? We pay younger people to take care of them. 

How about younger people? We pay older people to take care of younger people. 

That’s what happens in our modern-day schools, right? 

So God set up an intergenerational environment. He meant it on purpose. It’s very purposed that we do life with mixed ages.

Now, I’m not saying it’s bad to have a third-grade class or to have a junior high youth group. Because big churches may do something different, but I just want you to keep in mind that that’s not the ideal. It’s done because it needs to happen. There, it’s a necessity. If you graduate from a high school of 3000 people, which is the kind of public high school my kids went to, you could never have all 3000 people in the same room. It’s practical to split them up into senior high English versus freshmen English, right? There are different levels of English because you’re dealing with masses of people.

In small churches, we don’t have to do that. We get to grow in compassion and understanding and respect. 

I have a few friends who have children or family members with special needs, whether it’s medical needs or other, and talking with them, they’ve said, “I wouldn’t have chosen this, but it has been such a blessing.” Not just to take care of someone who has medical needs or special needs, but it was a blessing on them.

I think we need to figure out what this gift is that God has given us without begrudging it. So maybe you wouldn’t choose it, but just maybe that God knows better. He created us to do life with people who are different than us, on purpose. 

So those are three reasons that I think small churches are awesome.

God loves small, relationships happen in small numbers, small churches can’t help, but be an intergenerational playground. And the fourth thing is I think small churches are the most amazing leadership training ground. 

Now I’ve been in big churches, I’ve served in them. I’ve worshiped in them. I’ve worked for them. In fact, my ministry career started in a church of 3000. I was hired as the junior high youth director. Talk about segmented, right? 

So I’ve been in big churches and I’ve been in small churches. I’ve been in big churches where they audition worship team members. Do you know what you do in small churches? You try to find a worship team member!

In fact, half the time you’re developing a new musician who didn’t even know they wanted to lead or could lead or could even play an instrument. There is so much room for leadership in small churches, it is beautiful and so amazing. We want you to serve, we’ve got space for you. We will teach you. We will train you. 

In larger churches, yeah, they’re still looking for volunteers, but it’s not the same space for leadership. Large churches, hire staff. Sometimes a lot of staff. That’s not a bad thing. It’s just a different thing. They just don’t develop leaders in the same way. 

I’ve been in large churches where if you want to teach Sunday school, you’re put on a list. Like they have enough teachers, they don’t have all the helpers they want, but they’ve got plenty of teachers. And they don’t always have developing training grounds. 

Now, sometimes they do, please hear me. I love large churches. I love middle-sized churches. I love small churches. I think God works uniquely in all of them, but it’s different.

In a small church, there are some beautiful blessings that we need to embrace that God has given us. If we would just open our eyes. So many people begrudge this thing of smallness of small churches. 

I need to find a bigger youth group for my kids. I need to find more friends my age. I need to be at a church with a better worship team.

Why? I think sometimes we need to ask ourselves, what are we seeking? 

The gift of small churches is amazing. Mentoring, discipleship, being seen, being loved, doing life together in an extended family, growing in leadership, literally being a significant part of a community. Being missed when you are gone. Being needed.

So why am I sharing this? Why did I start a podcast for small church ministry with four reasons that small churches are amazing? 

You know, a few years ago when I started a blog, I thought I was doing kind of this cool little thing in my small church, because I had this cool idea I got from another small church and I thought, why don’t we share ideas? 

Because here’s the reality. Until now, the resources available in the marketplace, 99% are for large churches. Publishing houses, businesses, the people who are putting out resources for churches they need to make money. That’s totally fine. They’ve got to pay their bills.

Well, what they found was that large churches have big budgets, right? And so those are the ones who are going to buy the books and the resources and the discipleship training because small churches can’t afford it. 

So when you’re looking for resources for small churches, wow! Few and far between.
Pinterest. How many times do you get on Pinterest and look for these great ideas and you go to put them into your church and you’re like, “eh, that doesn’t work for me.” I can’t break my Sunday school class into small groups, we are a small group! That game won’t work. 

Well, the more I connected with others in small churches, the more I talked about small churches, the more I realized the huge gap. Well, not even really a gap, a chasm, a complete absence that existed in the areas of resources for small churches, training for small churches, and even truth about small churches. 

Do you know how many small churches there are out there? 80% of churches on the planet are under a hundred people! Crazy right?

And we feel like we’re alone. Like I’m the only one in a small church struggling with this. No way! We only feel alone because we weren’t connected. Not before. 

So who knew that my starting a blog would snowball into an entire community of thousands of people in small churches craving to connect. Excited to join God at work, to connect with others who have the same struggles, but instead of bemoaning and complaining, we’re deciding to engage in sharing creative solutions and finding what works.  Rediscovering the joy of being in a small church, the gift of it, the significance we can have in our communities in this place that God is already at work. 

So here’s the reality. There is no shame in small, in fact, God delights in it. 

He delights in us. 

Many people I’ve connected with over the past couple of years feel like they’re failing in small churches because they’re using resources that were never meant for them. So it looks like we’re failing because everything we try doesn’t work. Because we’re trying the wrong things. Instead of being a unique place that God designed us to be in community, we’re trying to look like the big churches, to program by the big churches, because somebody told us that’s what successful ministry looks like.

You know what?  We’ve got to get back to Jesus and see how He did ministry. Because it’s nothing like that. 

It’s kind of like David. Little David trying to wear armor that’s too big, right? He’s gonna come up to Goliath. He’s going to put on all this big, heavy armor. He’s even going to start walking on stilts so he can be as big and tall as the big people. How awkward, weird, not effective, and disastrous! What is that going to look like? 

The thing is, we don’t need all that either. God’s over here saying I got you covered. I got a slingshot. It’s not about that stuff anyway. It’s about Me. So let’s get, uh, get rid of all this heavyweight.

“You don’t need stilts. You got Me,” God says. “I have a purpose for you to fulfill, live like this. Watch what I do and just join Me.” 

So let’s just wrap it up here. Stick with me if you’re ready to embrace a new way of serving in your small church to wear fewer hats, but the right ones to get rid of maybe the crabby negative stuff, and fall in love with the people at your church.

To start using strategies that actually work in small churches instead of awkwardly adapting programs and ideas that were never designed for smaller numbers and smaller budgets. To find God in the middle of what you think is a failed event or program. 

We’re planning to drop a podcast every week. But knowing me, I’ll probably be doing a little bit more. We’ll probably have some special series or bonus episodes and interviews, or maybe a focus on Kidman or worship because there’s so much to share. 

We have generations of small church neglect to make up for. 
Do me a favor before you go. Would you please just take a minute to rate this podcast? I know it’s early, but if you’ve been following our website and community for a while, you know me and you know it’s going to be good.

The deal with rating podcasts is this. It helps people find it. The more ratings we have, the more it’ll pull up in searches. And there are so many people in small churches searching for encouragement, support, ideas, and strategies that we are going to be talking about in this podcast.

And we’ve got to get the word out to people in small churches. We are just hitting the tip of the iceberg of small churches. That God is at work and that we’re here too. 
Wherever you’re listening from, whether it’s Spotify, Apple, Google, on the website, or wherever, there’s always a place to leave ratings and comments and it’s going to make a big difference.
So thanks for spending some time with me. I totally appreciate you. 

Go be a light in the world and we’ll talk again soon.